This many years ago in my mother’s belly, her pushed against the window worried about my father who defied curfew in Havana and went out to “get food” – “check on my grandfather’s stores” – “see what was going on” (the story changes every time it is told) – my mother, eight months plus pregnant pushed up against the window trying to see the 14 year old soldiers “smacking their chewing gum,” “carrying rifles,” coming to get Batista’s large body guard – the sound of the body guard’s German Shephard pacing the long corridor.
Fidel Castro steps down today as ruler of Cuba – is it possible that forty nine years have gone by – that Cuba has been under his rule without interruption for nearly five decades – is it possible that it is over?